First of all, people might call this a review. But I just wanna call this one as an opinion. As this might come from my very own personal view. Also beware there may be spoilers ahead!
What is this film anyway?
Soul is a film from Disney – Pixar about a jazz musician who still couldn’t break the industry. So, this musician – Joe Gardner, had a job as a middle school music teacher for a daily basis.
Until he got a call from his former student to join a famous band of the town. Of course Joe was excited, thought about nothing and just ran to the rehearsal to audition for his place as a pianist. As he played, somehow Joe lost in the zone – a feeling when people got so deep in their passion. Then the spot in the band? Joe got it!
For someone who had been spending most of his life pursuing a career as a jazz musician, Joe was thrilled with the audition outcome. Then this guy was just walking home recklessly till he got himself to The Great Beyond a.k.a dying.
There Joe should have been deceased. Instead he ran away and fell into The Great Before where “young souls were trained” before jumping to live on Earth. In this plane, Joe accidentally mentored a soul named (or numbered) 22. Considering the number, 22 was really old for a soul. Where other souls are mentioned in a trillion or may be in quadrillion!
22 already mentored by Mohammad Ali, Mother Teresa, and even my favorite – Carl Jung. But no one could ever make her move to Earth. From this condition, I think how come Joe who lost in real life and also in The Great Before could mentor an old soul who has never got out of the plane for a long time.
As the mentoring went, 22 and Joe found out about each other’s journey. In the end I understood that even though Joe’s life was sad, he was trying so hard to get back to Earth.
Souls and Astral Plane
There was a type of soul, the lost soul. The lost soul is when you do something like a boring job, you know when you feel like a zombie. Something I kinda was into for some moments or (may be) even still in while writing this post. There is another thing though, lost could mean you are in a state of too obsessed then you ‘disconnect’ This type of soul could be found in the astral plane.
Funny thing about the astral plane, the soul on Earth could visit this plane via “lost in the zone” as I mentioned before. But more about that, some souls could even be aware that they were in the astral plane. These guys helped the lost soul, so they could live their life on Earth again.
Journey to Earth
The journey of Joe and 22 went to Earth started with the help from “conscious souls” in the zone drawing a thin spot between the astral plane and the Earth. This was where I saw Joe’s soul got into a cat body and 22’s soul got into Joe’s body.
I came from nothing watching this film. Like I didn’t really watch any trailers. Not even looking for the poster. But after this scene and finishing the film, I understand why they put a cat on Joe’s shoulder for some promos.
Back to the body-soul kind of thing. What I found interesting is the nature of the body is still the same even though it had a “wrong soul”. Like the cat still followed the light from glasses’ reflection and 22 knows what’s inside Joe’s brain.
Parent-Child Relationship
I don’t know about other people. But I understand something that any child in the world would have some differences. Whether these would be some small things or something bigger or something about one’s way of life – like what Joe had with his mom.
Joe always wanted to be a musician like his dad. His mom always wanted Joe to have a stable job. This is why when Joe got a full time job for his teaching at a middle school, Joe seemed off but his mom really loved the idea. In the later part of the film when Joe’s soul is in a cat, Joe told 22 to say something that had to be said like forever.
Joe’s experience is something that I see on a day to day basis. I think most parents have their own vision for their kid as to how they should live their life. Not pushing their kid to push their own vision. But the funny part is all it just takes a few seconds of talk and understanding. But I don’t know though if I ever could do that like Joe did.
Let’s Wrap It Up
Soul is a film telling about soul (obviously!). The film shows us how our soul is having a journey in a creative-philosophical way. Or may be the director and/or the writers know more about soul more than we do. Just saying.
In the end, our purpose is not a spark, not a passion either. Our purpose is a never ending journey full of emotions, experiences and connections with others.
